Raiméis

As reported yesterday, four players from Tyrone and five from Dublin have been charged by the GAA’s Central Disciplinary Committee over the brawls at the two sides’ league game in Omagh almost 2 weeks ago. The players could face lengthy bans for their actions and I hope they do. I hope examples are made of both the players and the counties. The CDC is set to meet again this Saturday to discuss the issue further.

But the GAA itself really needs to take much of the responsibility for this. For far too long the GAA have tolerated this sort of behavior. How many years have we been looking at brawls mar games without the GAA doing much about it? The fact that players can accumulate yellow cards in successive games** without being punished is nothing but a joke. Players need to be properly punished [definition] for breaking the rules and the punishment enforced, simple as that.*

For as long as I have been going to games (since around the mid 80′s) fighting has been pretty much ignored. I remember one game I played in at under 14 level, we were playing a neighboring county in the Féile. The two team captains were actually class mates of mine and both hated each other with a vengeance. Before the ball was even thrown in a fight erupted between the two. Both players should have been shown the line immediately yet all they got was a telling off from the ref. What sort of message does this send to young players representing their county? That kicking the shit of each other is ok?

“Cute-hoorism”** has always been an inherent part of Gaelic games. Players elbowing each other or digging each other with the hurley, pulling jerseys, getting in punches whenever possible, having little kicks at each other; these are aspects of the game which have been accepted at all levels of the sport. You’ll see it in any game when lads are marking up, constantly pulling jerseys and elbowing each other. The sad thing is players are learning this (it can only be described as cheating) is acceptable at a very young age and are never taught that it is wrong.

One of the best aspects of Gaelic games is the speed, the games are let flow, play isn’t stopped by the refs whistle every 15 seconds like in soccer, and this is something which we have to maintain to keep the sports fast and exciting. Yet somehow the GAA need to clamp down on the cheating and especially the fighting in the sports. Proper penalties should only be the first step, clubs need to work on this at all levels especially with youngsters coming into the sports. IMOHO.

*Furthermore, once a punishment is meted out it shouldn’t be rescinded by the county board or lifted by high court injunction [example 2], as we have seen a number of times. This is simply making a mockery of the rules.

**Edit: Unashamedly fleeced from “In Fact, Ah”

Edit 2: Declan Lynch, in his usual style, has a few words to say on the “Battle of Omagh“. Imagine, they call this kind of trash “journalism” … once again I forget to credit, it’s becoming a habit. Hat tip to Slugger.

I was a bit bored tonight so I decided to use my odd sense of humour to put my own spin on some of today’s headlines. Feel free to skip over this post if you’re on a different wavelength…

BBC: Six in court over Scream painting. It’s a truly dodgy painting, and about time people were brought to justice for trying to pass it off as art.

CNN: Murder suspect Entwistle searched Net for ‘how to kill’. He also searched for STD’s and now faces charges of spreading Aids, gonorrhoea & herpes. Charges relating to the spread of bacterial vaginosis have been dropped.

CNN: Hussein shouting again in court. He also blew his nose and farted twice, one time raising his right arse cheek in the process.

Cnet: RSA turns everyday gadgets into security tokens. Fantastic blokes those South Africans, I sent off a pencil sharpener two weeks ago and as promised my security token arrived this morning. Talented individuals right enuff.

Slashdot: Robot Piloted by a Slime Mold … later arrested for driving without evidence of insurance or motor tax, currently being held in a medium security tubberware container.

Telegraph: Soldier believed to have shot abuse video is held. Abuse video said to be in critical but stable condition.

Sad, I know…

I wasn’t much of a reader when I was younger, I was either out pucking a sliotar around a field or playing soldiers. The first book I ever bought myself was “Jaws”, I picked up a 2nd hand copy while on holidays in Strandhill many moons ago. It’s an absolute classic story and resulted in a classic film which frightened the bejaysus out of swimmers the world over back in 1974. The film was on tv here quite recently so I had to sit and watch it again, it’s lost none of it’s magic, it’s still a great film. I was therefore saddened to read of the death of Jaws author Peter Benchley, who died at his home in New Jersey yesterday at the young age of 65. Sad news.

Peter Benchley website
Peter Benchley Biography

A little bored this evening so I took a trip around the blogosphere to see what’s happening and came across a few blogs worth bookmarking…
The first is Manuel Stimulation, a blog from a Spanish dude living in Ireland. Hilarious blog, I’ll be dropping by there often.
The next I found was it’s all fun and games run by “AMS”, an accountant with a sense of humor (yeah, I was surprised too). I have to admit it was her post on breastfeeding which caught my attention
Lastly They all speak English is a Welsh group blog (in English). One of our regulars Rhys is a contributer there. Rhys also runs an English language blog Smiling Under buses as well as his Welsh one, love the sub header “Speaking a dead language since 1977″.

Enjoy!
As usual don’t forget the links in the right hand column.

United Irelander tagged me with a MEME “The view of an Irish blogger” this morning. While it looks interesting-ish some of the questions are a little personal so I hope he won’t mind if I give this one a miss. Instead I’ll run with his idea of doing a MEME on MEMEs.

The MEME MEME

Do you know what MEME means?

Yes. Thanks to Google.

Do you give a shit what MEME means?

No, not at all.

Do you know how to pronounce MEME?

Yes. But it’s not how I would pronounce it.

Do you give a shit how to pronounce MEME?

No, not at all.

If I told you the creator of the first MEME was beaten into a coma by a gang of angry bloggers, then gang raped by a herd of pigmy elephants before being skinned and thrown into a vat of salt would that make you feel all warm and cuddly inside?

Oh, I’m getting this cool tingly sensation all over. Lovely.

A MEME is “A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. From the Greek mimëma, something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate.”

Do you give a fuck?

Do I look like I give a fuck? (pretend you can see me, I have on a scowly version of The Rock’s raised eyebrow look)

Richard Dawkins, the British evolutionary biologist, introduced the term MEME after writing that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission — in the case of biological evolution, the gene.

Do you give a fuck?

Answer 1 of ‘So what have the Brits done for us?’

Do you send MEMEs to people for fun or to piss them off?

To spread the misery!

If MEME was a person what weapon would you use to beat them with?

Their own arm after I ripped it from their body.

If MEME was a weapon what person would you beat with it?

The person who had the clever idea of sending these MEMEs via blogs.

To complete this MEME you must send it to 5 bloggers tagged you for MEMEs … or not, who gives a shit, right?

Sorry Antonio, UI, Deaglan, Gerry and JL, but you’re it!

A total of six people, including a two-year old boy in Swords, have been killed on our roads in the past 24 hours. That brings the total so far for 2006 to 50! It looks like we’re set for another 400+ year!
It’s absolute madness. So many lives destroyed for no reason. When will the Government & the Gardaí get their fingers out and start working to make our roads safer? What’s the point is standing with a speed camera in a 40mph zone in the middle of the afternoon when many if not most fatalities occur late at night? Where are the Gardaí with their breathalysers when people are leaving the pubs & nightclubs? And when will Irish people cop the fuck on and start driving responsibly?
United Irelander (thx for the stats link) has a few words to say on the subject.

Paul (NI Magyar) mentioned awhile back that he thought 2005 was a pretty barren year in terms of music quality. I didn’t quite agree at the time but I only realised afterwards that most of the music I listen to I have been listening to for yonks! It’s all old stuff. The most recent album I bought was actually U2′s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004), an excellent album by the way, by far their best since their last one. For the past few weeks I’ve been listening fairly heavily to System of a Down Toxicity which is from 2001 and Chris Cornell’s Euphoria Morning from 1999. And most of the other songs I listen to are from the last century.
The songs I like best are good guitar tunes and while there are some good fairly recent ones many of the best go back a couple of decades. Here’s some songs which have a permanent place on my all time favourite list (in no special order)

The too-obvious choices…
The Eagles – Hotel California (the live version with the cool intro)
Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven (banned in most guitar stores worldwide)
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
The Animals – House of the Rising Sun (Muse do a nice and heavy cover of this)
David Bowie – Space Odyssey
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Tim Lizzy/Gary Moore – Parisienne Walkways

The less-obvious choices…
Metallica – One
Metallica – Fade to Black
Metallica – Sanatarium (I could probably add a few more Metallica’s)
Red Hot Chili Peppers – My Friends
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge (a bit overplayed that one)
U2 – God Part 2
U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday (can’t beat the famous live version)
Audioslave – Show me how to live
Queens of the Stone Age – Go with the flow

The probably-on-no-one-else’s-list choices…
The Frames – Revelate
No Doubt – Don’t Speak
Soundgarden – Fell on Black Days
Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag
Alanis Morissette – Thank You
Beastie Boys – Sabotage
Green Day – Good Riddance

It’s not a full list by any means. I could add another 50 from just U2, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers & Chris Cornell.

So what would make your all-time favourites list?

Edit: I suppose I should clarify that I had a “Top 100″ in mind writing this. List 1 are the all time classics, those songs that would make any list. List 2 are just great songs in general but which may not be considered all time classics. Category 3 are just those odd songs which I love to listen to.

I was delighted to see that Ken Doherty won the Malta Cup last night. It’s been 5 years since he won any ranking tournament, his last victory being the 2001 Thailand Masters. I was watching the game yesterday but had to take a break from the t.v. when Higgins won 6 frames in a row to take him to 8-5. I thought Ken was done for but I should have had more faith as he won all the remaining frames to take the match 9-8. Well done Ken, good on ya!

Vote now for your favourite Irish Blogs!
After the public vote the top 5 blogs per category will go before a judging panel to select each winner. Winners will then be announced on March 11th.

How is it bears with their thick fur get to hibernate* yet us thin skinned cunts are expected to get up every morning to go to work? I think I’ll have a lie in tomorrow morning.

*Useless fact for you: Bears don’t actually hibernate, they simply go into a deep sleep (and stay fairly warm throughout the winter). True hibernators lower their body temperature to almost match their environment.